A campaign is urging Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to exempt sanitary napkins from taxes but its real purpose goes much deeper than that.

As if the sheer discomfort menstruation brings to women each month isn't enough, the added expenditure associated with this monster makes things even worse. To tackle this very issue, a campaign is currently urging the Government of India to abolish taxes on sanitary napkins entirely. #LahuKaLagaan--that literally translates to 'tax imposed on blood'--wants Finance Minister Arun Jaitely to exempt menstrual hygiene products like sanitary napkins from taxes that go upto 14.5 per cent in some states.

You can go without attending that compulsory office outing during days you're not particularly feeling rich, but the expense associated with menstrual hygiene products is as unavoidable as menstruation itself. But while the need for this campaign heralded by non-profit organisation, SheSays, cannot be emphasised upon enough, this is merely the first step in the direction.

How exactly? Well, according to SheSays, a mere 12 per cent of India's total female population has access to sanitary napkins. Which means, the remaining 88 per cent women are still surviving on traditional methods like cloth pads, dried leaves and newspapers. Maybe it's this disparity that makes people believe sanitary napkins are a luxury item when, in fact, they are a necessity.

Lethargy, immense pain, and decreased productivity are some inevitable facets of menstruation, but when women and girls are subjected to unhygienic period health and disposal practices, they're also subjected to the perils of cervical cancer and Reproductive Tract Infections.

So while #LahuKaLagaan might seem like a campaign heralding the idea of tax-free menstrual products, its real purpose goes much deeper than that. The idea is to not make this about the 12 per cent of women or leave behind the remaining 88 per cent--but to use the occasion as a means to benefit the 100 per cent female population and make affordable menstrual hygiene a basic human right instead of the utopian dream it seems like today.